Muchos gracias for the inference of youthfulness. I am 48 and will match your world-weariness disillusionment for disillusionment. But I haven't given up yet. As I sit here in my office, I gain inspiration from the "SMC -- Nov. 6" button stuck up on my wall. The younger people in my office (just about everybody else) don't have a clue what that button means, but to me it serves a great reminder of what mass movements CAN accomplish.
In that connection, re your other comment: "Expectations of imminent collapse which are not met are often followed by political demoralization and inactivity, or by what LP has called 'mutation' of left into right."
As a trigger of demoralization and inactivity, the greater danger is posed by the expectation that things will basically NEVER change and the best we can hope to do is amuse ourselves -- either by noodling around with marginal changes in the tax code or engaging in flights of fancy in "high theory."
Oh, and since you're not playing tennis -- or golf, it seems -- today, you might take a glance at the Bloomberg. The Dow's down 220 as I write.
Carl Remick